Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Water worker had shock when called to fix broken pipe

Streets and homes in Melbourne, Australia have been flooded after a burst water main sent two million litres of water shooting into the air on Monday.

The spout was 250 feet (80m) high, the equivalent of a 13-storey building, causing a deluge in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley.


YouTube link.

A 9.5 stone metal cage that covered the pipe blew into the sky like a champagne cork, crashing down on a nearby house, while the cascading water also destroyed another house. The water spout lasted an hour, with 35,000 litres of water gushing every minute.

The water company said the pipe was 50-years-old, but was supposed to last for 100 years. The deluge was reportedly quelled by a single worker from the water company. A faulty air-ball valve was thought to have caused the pipe to rupture.

4 comments:

WilliamRocket said...

They used 9 and a half stones to make a cage ?
...out of metal ?
WTF ?

zan said...

I think it means stones as in the archaic weight measurement (I think a stone is 14 lbs?)

BoS said...

It's a very common unit of measurement and in the UK the majority of people express their weight in stones and pounds. And as zan says, 14lbs = 1 stone(st). (8st = 1 hundredweight(cwt) and 20cwt = 1 ton) ;o)

Deej said...

They must have the most awesome showers there!